Grand Harbor Resort and Waterpark

We stayed here for a business trip. Overall it was ok, no major downfalls. Just pretty outdated and dumpy. We arrived at 1pm, no rooms were available so we had to wait until check-​in time at 4pm.
*we did not try the water park, but it also looked outdated and dumpy when we looked at it.
The conference center which is attached to the hotel is very nice.
Tony Roma’s is also attached to the hotel and we weren’t fans of it. (See separate review).

This hotel looks nice at first presentation. This is by far the dirtiest rusty indoor water park I have EVER been to. I wanted to dust the slides myself.
They have a gym, but it’s right under a guest room. I couldn’t access it on Sat until after 9a. I understood because if that were me, I wouldn’t want anyone working out above me. However, the facility should have thought about that. The staff was nice. Can’t complain about the rooms-​pretty standard. The restaurant was decent enough. We had to stay there as that’s where my son’s baseball team picked. I wouldn’t stay there at my own choosing.

Not my favorite «Water Park Resort» in Iowa. It was so overly busy. The water park was a nightmare with tons of running screaming kids without parents. It was difficult to be in there and enjoy yourself. The hotel is defiantly kid friendly which was a plus since we have two kids. The rooms were clean. The food at the restaurant was delicious but pricey.

Stayed as part of the Twilight River Cruise (recommended!) so only one night. Was perfect! We had a total of 5 rooms. Everything was smooth at arrival and they upgraded my parents for their 50^th wedding anniv! If I ever find myself in Dubuque, I’ll stay here!

My husband and I booked a room for 2 nights for a wedding. We called 8 days before check in to talk about canceling one night because we were coming from 8 hours away and weren’t sure we would make it all the way. The receptionist told my husband he could call back the day before check in to cancel. My husband called the day before check to cancel the Friday night reservation and the receptionist told him he missed the window to cancel. She said they didn’t have any notes on our account/​reservation stating they had spoken to him about canceling. They claimed he missed the cancellation window by 4 hours. They told him to call back the next day to speak to a manager. The manager said she would cancel the room at a 50% fee, so still charging $ 60. We ended up driving late into the night to get to the hotel and arrived at 2:45am.
The «waterpark» is definitely for children and not adults. Our room was okay, faced the parking lot and not the river (bummer) and wasn’t overly clean. In my husband’s words, «Wear socks, don’t walk barefoot in the room.». There was some trash left behind in the bathroom from others. The shower head was 2 seconds from detaching itself before I actually screwed it on so it would quit spraying the entire bathroom. There was mold/​gross build up in the bathroom in the corners.
The hotel isn’t very up to date. The outside is very pretty. The walls are paper thin. You can hear when someone is showering, talking, or watching TV.

Very average place. Carpets are very stained and dirty, def bring socks or flip flops. Staff was iffy, my kids said our wedding reception server was high. Breakfast was tasty but terribly slow. Expensive and no perks. Paid for so so beds and a loud AC. Place has potential but is tired and old. Pretty views though.

First night of a two night stay, however I feel the need to review because so far, I’m not happy. Positives: Close to Diamond Jo Casino, National Mississippi Museum, and port of Dubuque. Decent river walk. Negatives: Free Music in Tony Roma’s was very disappointing. Group had to play in bar area instead of the patio because of May Flies and the humidity. (Out of the venue’s control, so no «fault» there.) Played two songs when we arrived and then took a 30+ minute break. Maybe it was for the best because the female vocalist (Laura ?) wasn’t good. The male singer was marginally decent. The manager (s) need to train some of their wait staff to give better service. Our first waitress seemed annoyed because I wasn’t immediately ready to place my order. (We had just missed Happy Hour and I had wanted a cosmopolitan but didn’t want to pay $ 8 or $ 9. I requested a little more time to review the drink menu. I suggested that she place my husband’s drink order (Romagrita — classic marguerita) so that I could try it. It wasn’t to my liking, so I asked for another minute. Well, never saw that waitress again. A colleague came to take my order. When asked about our first waitress, we were told «they’re sending her home.» I’ve been a waitress, albeit many years ago. When our shift ended mid-​order, we always told our customer and introduced the new waitstaff, letting the customer know that they would be well taken care of, allowing for attentive service to continue. I reluctantly ordered a Baileys on the rocks. When asked for our check, our waitress verbally told us the amount. We paid, requested a receipt and saw on the «reprint» (never received a check prior to paying) that there was an itemized amount for my drink: $ 4.75 and an additional $ 2.00 for a 2 oz. pour. (The waitress stated that she was off by two quarters… meaning from the check amount she previously stated was incorrect.) There must have been a change in managers too. First we saw one «purple shirt and tie» guy walking around keeping an eye on the waitstaff. Then he disappeared and in came the «blue shirt and tie» guy. When we left, I wanted to inquire about the bill (our second waitress had «disappeared») but he was busy with other customers. Room is standard, seemingly clean for the most part. Hotel rugs could use a good shampooing. We’ll see what the night brings…

Just returned from two night stay with 11 mo old and a 2 yr old. This was our first family vacation since I can remember.
If you want a more detailed description read on, but if your just browsing here’s the cliff notes version. WE HAD FUN.
Overall impression of the hotel and surrounding area (port of Dubuque) is good. The ability to stay in one specific area and have a decent amount of activities is really helpful with small kids. There is a really nice walkway behind the hotel that follows the river. Your not gonna get a great workout from it, but a good half hour will be perfect. Watch out for mayflies depending on the season.
We booked last minute and got a simple double twin room. Room was fine. Nothing special at all. I’m going to say that where we stayed had to be one of the last rooms available. More on that later.
The waterpark is great. That is if you are young enough. I would not want to take my kids past the age of 10. They would get bored instantly. And if you are taking your young kids make sure you are kinda physically fit cause it’s crawling on cargo nets for you.
When I seen there was an arcade. I was excited as an old coin junky myself. Couldn’t be more disappointed. Nothing more than a rip off ticket collection so you can get cheap plastic crap for 5 $ worth of tickets. ski ball and air hockey are your main highlights.
Tony Roma’s is an integrated part of the hotel. This is your breakfast. 5 $ bowl of cereal. For a place that obviously caters towards children, not having any kind of normal hotel breakfast. Really sucked. And Tony Roma’s is Applebee’s with and added 5 – 10 dollars per plate.
There is a small restaurant that’s in a boat I think it was called ice harbor restaurant take your business there. Great burger and fries
Our room was on top of the restaurant patio that played music till 10 – 11 pm both nights. Wed and thurs nights too.
Overall good place. Kinda pricey but it’s So close to a lot of cool stuff with the casino and river museum that it makes it seem worthy. I will definitely be going back to this place. Now that I know what to avoid. Cause man that Tony Roma’s just bummed me out.
Oh yeah hotel is very focused on the elevators. So if you are the healthy person who hates to wait for elevators and take the stairs. That not happening.

If you don’t like kids you might want to stay somewhere else. There’s a waterpark in this hotel so you can imagine the amount of rugrats running around the place. A half day pass for that area is only 7 bucks so if you’re doing a family weekend in Dubuque, you won’t find anything better to keep the little ones entertained at that price.
Overall the rooms are ok, but nothing that’s gonna knock your socks off. Our shower pressure was a little weak and the toilet didn’t exactly flush as a normal toilet should, but overall it was a decent stay for under $ 100 a night.

Room was nice and clean. Water park was a little chilly and the water was a little colder than I would like. The water park was perfect for our children though. They are 3 and 5. The locker rooms aren’t exactly locker rooms. It’s bathroom stalls and one small open area to change in. I’m not a big fan of changing in front of other people so my daughter and I crammed into a stall and changed. Only a problem the first visit. After that we changed in the hotel room and didn’t need the locker room anymore. The life guards aren’t as diligent as other resorts we’ve been in. They’re checking their watch, checking the clock and occasionally checking the children. My daughter slipped and fell and went under water-​thankfully I was right there because the guard never saw it. I assumed they had life jackets there. They did not. I would recommend taking a life jacket and if you don’t you have to be right on top of your children so there isn’t a tragic accident. I wouldn’t have been nearly as worried if they were wearing jackets. The walk way to and from the elevators to the water park is right by the front doors so you freeze your butt off during your walk but it’s a short walk at least. The arcade was fun and Tony Roma’s was good too. Overall it was good for the price. It certainly wasn’t the dells but either was the price and our drive was only 1 ½hrs compared to the 5 hrs to the dells. Don’t regret going but probably won’t return.

I took my family here for a Winter getaway. My kids are 3, 6 and 11 years old. Everyone had a good time. I felt a few things were missing, however. I thought the waterpark was very dark. I think it would be cool to implement some sort of simulated sunlight to make it appear as though we are outdoors. Also, it would be nice to incorporate a big pool to just hang out in. A WAVE POOL would really spice things up. I felt this was a missing key item. The rooms were average, at best, but overall, a fun getaway.

Since it was during a popular time when we stayed, we paid more than I would have liked. But… we got a turret room and it was nice to have coffee, a microwave and ample fridge and food storage space. So we ate in for breakfast each day.
Room temperatures in our two room accommodation seemed to run cool in the living room.
The waterpark is good for up to tween years. But it runs more on the splash parkish side.
Be sure to bring a wrap or beach towels, as the hallway leading to the elevator goes right past the main entrance so it’s very chilly.

I was here for a wedding over the weekend and was astonished about how much they charge for this place. Granted, I am spoiled and have traveled a ton this year, but it doesn’t even crack my top-​10 hotels. The rooms are small, plain and standard. No coffee pot, but a microwave and a mini fridge. I hear the water park is great for little kids, of which I have none, so whatever. Breakfast is not included and there’s no place to grab a quick cup of coffee. Wifi is free and the staff is friendly, but it’s nothing to write home about.

This was a clean simple hotel. Nothing extraordinary. For half the price you could stay at a Super 8 or La Quinta and get a pool and free breakfast. The waterpark is only opened on weekends in the fall so there was no pool for my daughter, and breakfast at the hotel restaurant was $ 30 and nothing special. It was also hard to get to (the hotel) for a couple not used to city driving. The view would be amazing if there weren’t equipment out the window blocking the river view. We must not have gotten the best room lol.

As we often do, we stayed here on a Groupon, so it was a great deal! We also came during the middle of the week, so it was dead. The room was simple and the beds were fine. I really didn’t have any issues with the rooms. The location was beautiful and there was a lot to see. The kids liked the waterpark, but it is definitely for the younger kids. (Up to 10yrs old) I thought the restaurant was affordable and the food was pretty good. They had good lunch deals. I thought it was a great getaway.

This place has clean and simple rooms. It is also connected to the Grand River Center which is convenient for a wedding. It also has a great location.
However, that being said the customer service here was not good. We had a block of rooms here for our wedding and we had lots of problems. First, in February we were told our block was full for our August wedding. Some of our guests called during the evening and were told there were no more rooms and then would call back the next morning to be given a reservation. Some guests were told they would be put on a waiting list and that the hotel would call if rooms were made available. They never did call the guests. Our guests were proactive and had to call back to get rooms.
Then, when it came to the actual event we had more problems with the hotel. They were pretty rude to our guests. They have a 4pm check-​in time. My aunt called the day before because she knew they were going to arrive 2 hours earlier. The hotel told her it would be no problem. When she arrived the next day they wouldn’t let her check into her room until 4pm. Also, that morning I was in the lobby sitting in front of the check-​in desk waiting for a few people. I was on the phone with my sister and my brother-​in-​law was calling the hotel to see if he could get into his room early. They said no, fine. After they hung up they started complaining about him calling and what do people expect from them. Seriously complaining about guests in front of guests is unprofessional.
Customer service here from start to finish was a disaster. They always say one thing will go wrong for your wedding and sadly the hotel was ours.

First up, the water park was closed so NO KIDS. Not that I’m anti kids, just wanted that pointed out in the review. Place was CLEAN, not sure were the bashing about how horrible the rooms are comes from. We looked at a few rooms before booking for an upcoming event and all rooms were presentable. Yes there was some stains on furniture, why that is the hotels fault (cause it can’t be the kids spillin drinks fault) but nothing I would run from. I did not appreciate having the room next to me filled (I think there maybe were 30 rooms filled the night we were there). The noise at 1 AM and the doors slamming at 7 AM were a bit much and I didn’t see the need. All in all, enjoyed the stay and LOVED the river view.

I give this hotel a solid three stars. My kids would likely give it four or five stars. The water park is perfect for young children (elementary school age and younger). It was actually more interesting to my first graders than the Moose Lodge at the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva. AND mom and dad liked the cheaper price tag a lot!
The rooms are fine. Ours was clean and the housekeeping staff was kind. The bed was ok. The servers in the restaurant (Tony Romas) were also very helpful – the food is kinda blah, but that’s not the servers’ fault.
The water park is showing its age a bit (rust here and there), but is a great interactive water play ground with lots of levers, pulleys, water squirting everywhere, and two slides my boys could ride without our help (big bonus for mom and dad!) the snack bar is definitely low quality, but it’s a snack bar at a hotel water park. big deal.
The location next to the aquarium/​museum and Mississippi River is ideal. Dubuque is no Chicago, but when you are six years old that doesn’t matter! I think this is a nice option for a weekend away for families with young kids. Galena is nearby for kitsch shopping and small town charm. In warm weather the parks along the Mississippi in Dubuque are lovely. In a few years my boys would think this is boring, but for now it’s just enough excitement for us – and did I mention affordable? (make sure to ask for the museum ticket package, a great deal!)
Oh yeah, some people who came for the casino (i.e. they were drunk) and did have an argument in their room at 130AM on Friday night, but when I called the front desk they were upstairs and nipping it in the bud in less than five minutes! Thanks, Grand Harbor resort staff!

Just not there for the money. Diamond Jo’s and the water park were the attraction but nothing was there. Service sour and crabby. Room cold and general cleanliness was missing. No need to visit Dubuque again because the service throughout the hotel, and throughout the town made it feel like I was more of a burden than a money spender. My quick trip tourist money will go other places than Dubuque!

I wish you could review the water park separately from the hotel, because it’s actually pretty fun. I came here with a Girl Scouts group of about a dozen kids and their parents, and people seemed to be enjoying themselves. My daughter is six and she had a blast. So did I, frankly. There are two water slides plus one big one that you ride on a tube. There is a massive water play area which, while aging, has a ton of water traps and ways to soak your friends. There’s are several pool areas for kids to toddlers and a big hot tub. Generally, lots to do. We killed 4+ hours there and she still didn’t want to leave. Fun!